The Magnolia's Shadow is a collaborative writing game in which players create clues related to the family's strange disappearance and then craft explanations for the mystery. You will need access to Wikipedia to play.
Play unfolds over the course of about a week. Each morning for five days, players visit Wikipedia and read a random article (just search for "special:random"). The article provides inspiration for a clue, which can include evidence found by the police at the scene, background about the Cutright family, or town gossip. The player then writes a short description of the clue and adds it to a shared document or email chain for the others to read.
A player receives the entry for the Peter, Paul, and Mary album Peter, Paul, and Mommy. Perhaps police found the CD playing on repeat in a bedroom. Maybe--inspired by “Leatherwing Bat”--investigators found pages torn from birdwatching guides scattered around the house.
Another player ends up with the entry for Eastern Finland Province. Inspired by the bow in the coat of arms shown in the article, she writes how the Cutright father blinded another camper in one eye during archery practice as a child.
At the end of the week the group selects five random clues from the list they've created. You can print the clues and draw them from a hat, or assign a number to each clue and roll to see which ones will be used in the final round. However the clues are chosen, every player incorporates the same five clues into her explanation of the family's disappearance. As a variant, the group can pick three clues that everyone will use and allow each player to pick two additional clues at random.
Players can write the explanations from the from any perspective they choose, such as police investigating the event or teenagers describing the disappearance in an urban legend. Share the explanations with other players, preferably while driving down a dark, lonely road.
